Five video game moments we will never forget

Finding loot, defeating the infamous secret boss, or perhaps getting the top squad in a match of Battlefield 1. There are a few moments in video games that we will never forget.

Gamers that have been gaming since the dawn of video games could drown you in lists of these moments where we sat back and realised just how epic a scene, plot twist, final fight, or reveal was. It was these moments that defined our video game careers and they will be remembered forever.

Here are some of the most iconic video game moments. Obvious spoilers follow.

Plane Heist – Grand Theft Auto V

We could totally make an entire list of GTA missions that would fill the category of “the most iconic video game moments’. The games are simply everything you would expect from a high-octane adrenaline-filled action, and GTA continues to offer even more throughout the series.

One of the most iconic moments in the past was a mission in GTA V that started out pretty simple and ended up being completely mind-blowing. It saw you head into the sky to hijack a plane, to drive that plane into another plane, and then hijack that one too. It was truly something that belonged in a James Bond film with a multi-million dollar budget.

The entire mission was perfectly paced as you flew your crop duster into the Boeing plane and then drove out of the plane in a 4×4 to watch the aircraft crash into the lake below as you floated down in the driver’s seat while attached to a parachute. It was the stuff of dreams that proved Hollywood still have some growing up to do.

Plot twist – Bioshock

Bioshock is still today one of the greatest FPS games of all time, but that is not because it was a great shooter or told a great story, but it was because it did both of these things at the same time.

Bioshock’s narrative is considered to be one of the strongest in gaming and there is a reason to this. From the start of the game, you are fooled to believe that you are lost in this underwater city known as Rapture. As you go about the game it becomes clear that instead of you being there by your own will, you have in fact been brainwashed to perform tasks by Fontaine.

But it is right at the end of the game where it all comes into context and that series of events is set into motion that you will never forget. It is that moment when you are beating Andrew Ryan to death with a golf club that everything starts to make sense and the themes of Bioshock’s stellar story shines the brightest. We will never forget that scene.

Leaving the Vault – Fallout 3

Fallout 3 has quite a long starting chapter where you begin the game as a child growing up in Vault 101. As you progress through the tutorial stages it all starts to feel very familiar to the player. The decisions you make and the choices of each determine the game’s overall premise, but it is not until things go south in the Vault that you realise just how powerful those leading moments are.

Being forced to escape the vault and come to grips with just what is going on in the world is truly a magnificent beginning for a game so big. As the vault doors open and the light burns your eyes, you get that feeling that everything you once knew in life, being Fallout, is about to change.

The lead-up in the game and the opening hour to it was more than enough to introduce you the game’s mechanics but somehow as the door opens you take a deep breath in knowing that you have no idea what you are in store for.

Sarah Dies – The Last of Us

While the death of Joel’s daughter in The Last of Us was heartbreaking, it was one of those moments that made us all realise just how serious the game was about to get. To play as a character at the start of the game and then to kill them off so fast was truly a work of art, and while the death of Joel’s daughter was unexpected, it set the tone for the game’s uncomfortable hours ahead.

Sure some may argue that Joel’s daughter’s death was not as dramatic as we are making it out to be, but if you put it into context you will realise just how serious it was. The Last of Us had a few minutes to pull us into the game’s spectacular ambience, and it did just so by killing the first person we experience the game with. It was brutal but beautiful.

The Nuke – COD 4: Modern Warfare

In an era of World War-based shooters, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was one of the first in the series to take the leap into the future of modern, well, warfare. It was a big deal back in the day as this modern war was something foreign to players and fans of the series.

What all this meant was that the opening of Modern Warfare had to be bigger and better than anything ever seen in an FPS, and Treyarch never let their fans down. It was an opening that managed to bring enough explosions to make players realise that it was indeed a new generation of shooting games and that it meant business.

Those who can recall the opening will remember the nuke going off and all hell breaking loose as you tried to survive the raining down of hell on earth. Whole cities falling apart, roads crumbling to pieces, and of course the ambience of it all giving off this sense of complete annihilation. It was truly a magnificent explosion.